Vivendi fires 20% of its web music department

In November Vivendi Universal bundled its online music companies, including MP3.com, under one division and now it has come time to trim the division. Vivendi axed 20 percent of the staff and the layoffs at the unit will be across the board of all the companies, a company spokeswoman said.

New company formed in mid-November, Vivendi Universal Net USA, combined Vivendi's acquisitions such as MP3.com, EMusic.com and GetMusic.com with gaming and gambling sites Flipside, Uproar and IWin.